combover

This variant of the comb over was patented in 1977.

A comb over or combover is a hairstyle worn by bald or balding men in which the hair on one side of the head is grown long and then combed over the bald area. [1]

A variation of the combover (whereby baldness is concealed by long hairs combed in three separate directions) has a U.S. Patent   by Donald J. Smith and his father, Frank J. Smith, of Orlando, Florida, who were awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in Engineering for their effort.

Such is the interest in this hairstyle that a one-hour documentary –Comb Over - the Movie – has been made about it

A variation of the comb over is the "walnut whip," named after the chocolate product of the same name. The comb over strands are let grow to an even greater length and then curled round and piled up on top of the head ^{[citation needed]}.

Another common form of the comb over is the 'Gel-over.' It is like a normal comb-over with the hair over the bald spot-gelled so that it sticks about a centimeter over the scalp.

A common defence of those sporting the comb over is that they always combed their hair that way even before they began to go bald. In effect, a comb-over = side-parting + baldness. Others counter this by pointing out that no one with a normal side parting would have it so low down on the head. The intermediate position is that the part gradually evolves into a comb over during the long period of encroaching baldness, resulting in an unnatural style but with no critical decision to adopt that style.

In Japan, they call men with comb-overs, "bar code men," referring to the striations caused by the comb and how similar it is to the UPC on products.

It is also known as a gilheany, (named after Tom Gilheany from Sale, Victoria, Australia)

Famous Comb overs

• The late Southern California conservative political commentator and talk show host Wally George wore perhaps the most extreme example of a comb over, from far in the back forming a fringe in a pattern resembling the Beatle haircut of the 1960s. It was frequently mistaken for a toupee.

• In the UK, three people known for their comb-overs are former chairman of Call My Bluff, Robert Robinson (known as the "king of the comb over") [2][3][4], World Cup winner Bobby Charlton[5][6], and former leader of the National Union of Mineworkers, Arthur Scargill. References to them seldom neglect to mention their comb overs.

• In Melbourne, Australia the Carlton Football Club's champion Australian rules football player Bruce Doull was nicknamed the "Flying Doormat" due to the matted appearance of the constant disarrangement (during match play) of the long portions of his extreme comb over hairstyle.^{[citation needed]}

• As part of its ongoing "Illustrated History of Hair" series, Spy magazine once ran an article on notable combovers. Among the figures cited were Zero Mostel, Robert Gottlieb, Roone Arledge, Sam Donaldson, and Dick Van Patten.

• Former University of Illinois basketball coach Lou Henson had his combover style termed the "Lou-do"[7] by ESPN announcer Dick Vitale. Earlier in his career, when Henson was a coach at New Mexico State, he sported a close-cropped hairstyle that did not conceal his baldness.

• Gordon Scott, a small time actor from Lindenhurst, Illinois. An alumni of Bradley University, he has starred in a plethora of musicals, such as Urinetown. He is famous for his distinct, self-proclaimed "Gordon 'Do."

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